I reflected on the battle. I had already changed a few things with regards to my preparation. I would never leave without using both barrier spells again, and I’d upgraded them to their maximum rank. In addition, I’d upgraded my magic resistance.

I thought about the spell and how I had noticed it coming. My legs had felt vibrations in the dirt beneath me. There was still the option to strengthen my legs. I wondered what the effect of that would be.

Why don’t I ask?

Elysa?

That seemed like a good enough reason to upgrade the skill. It would also put even more power behind my jumps, which should allow me to get away faster, or make bigger leaps in case of emergencies. All in all, strengthening them would improve my defensive capabilities.

I had enough points to upgrade them to their maximum level but hesitated for a moment. I would still need to get the toxin resistance for an achievement I planned on getting. While technically it could wait, I was of the impression that many of these new skills would have uses soon enough. I wanted to have the option of using these spells when the situation called for them.

I decided to only raise it by two levels, spending 55 points and saving plenty in case I needed another skill in some sort of emergency.

Power coursed from my abdomen into my legs and, after going through the process twice, I felt much lighter on my feet. It made sense as my mass had increased significantly since I last upgraded this skill. The feeling of getting stronger physically in such a short amount of time was odd… but it was empowering at the same time.

I decided to take a look at my progress.

At this rate, whatever I would kill next would bump me up another level, perhaps more. I should get plenty of points to finish my initial goal of getting the cyclone spell to its maximum rank. I could then work towards either more offense, or try to get the toxin resistance.

Wait.

I’m an idiot.

I could simply ask Cellestra to use her tarantula’s venom on me. I did not need to find a snake of my own. I mean, any toxin should work, right?

The question was, how did I know what level of resistance I needed to fully resist the venom’s effects?

It seemed there was no immediate answer to that question. I could ask Cellestra if she had anything that was an extremely weak toxin instead, so I could save my evolution points and use them on other things. The thing was, eventually I’d have to level the skill anyway. I liked the defensive options that this blessing offered, and I was going to make sure to get them.

I would be spending a lot of points, sure, but my blessing had mentioned there was a way to get more evolution points later on in my final evolution.

Elysa, is that ability specific to one of the three choices I will be offered after going through the yellow and red evolution?

Can I already know in what way exactly it works?

As usual. The only information I got was superficial.

Will I know exactly what the ability does by the time I have to choose one out of three options?

Okay. There was that, at least. The ability to get extra evolution points sounded interesting, but I would have to find out how it worked before I made my decision. It was not something I would have to bother with at the moment.

What I did have to bother with was the fact that I had no idea where to find a bear. So far I’d been unlucky. I had found a deer, though. That was at least one creature I could cross off my list.

Also, Titan insectoid? I did not like the sound of that. I had no idea what size we were talking about here. It could be anywhere from a hedgehog to an elephant. The idea of an elephant-sized insect scared the hell out of me. I hadn’t actually seen an elephant before, but I’d heard stories about these massive mammals with huge tusks, and something they called a ‘trunk’. I had no idea what that looked like.

The fact that I was obliged to slay one for the evolution I’d like to go for next made it even worse. Then there was the time schedule that I had to work with…

At least I had the lightning arc spell now. I hoped it would be as powerful as I’d imagined.

I took a look at my experience one more time and decided the fastest way to go about it was to try to find a bear first. I would ignore anything else. This would allow me to conserve mana and venom for a target that I would absolutely need in order to evolve. Besides, I imagined a bear would give at least as much experience as that deer. I should be fairly close to hitting the level cap after that.

I was pretty proud of myself for thinking about it this way. I could also prevent unnecessary bloodshed.

After going through my skill list, contemplating what would be the smart thing to do going forward, and waiting for my mana and venom reserves to be replenished, I headed out again. I first headed for Cellestra’s home to inform her of the events that transpired. She deserved to know what was going on and what I intended to do about it.

Then, I had some sort of plan to search for a bear.

I knew there were bear species that would eat fish, and fish were plentiful in the stream close to Cellestra’s home. If I followed the stream to the south, I hoped I would run into a bear fishing.

It wasn’t the most thought-out plan, but in some way it made sense. It was all I had to go by.

Thanks to my strengthened legs, the trip was far shorter than before. I should have upgraded them earlier…

About fifteen minutes later, I reached the elf’s abode. The door was open, but I did not intend to go inside. I’d have too much trouble getting out again. Instead, I simply walked up to the window, half climbed the wall, and tapped it with one of my legs.

A few seconds later, Cellestra exited the building. In her hands were a few pieces of paper that she laid out on the grass.

“Welcome back, Kealyna. How did things go?”

I skittered up to the six pieces of paper, which had even larger letters drawn on them. It was amusing to see how she redid the letters each time to make things easier for me. I found it quite sweet of her.

I reveled in the feeling it gave me before I started writing.

“Good. Killed Royal Deer. Got bunch of evolution points and levels.”

“A royal deer?” Cellestra replied in obvious amazement. “I’m impressed.”

“Something important happened,” I continued writing.

“Oh?”

“Found ugly men. Looked like bandits. Humans. They scouting area for something. One said these poor elves will not know what is coming. Appears they want to attack elves. I think they plan to rob some kind of caravan. Not sure. Heard they have eight days to prepare.”

I wrote the words as fast as I could, and I could see Cellestra try to keep up as her pupils went back and forth between the letters. I was still surprised by how good my vision and multitasking were.

Cellestra didn’t respond for a while. I could see she was lost in thoughts after my long string of letters.

“That...” She eventually let out, “is terrible.”

She paused for a few seconds before continuing. “And I assume you want to stop them?”

It seemed she had guessed that it wasn’t in my nature to let something like this happen on my watch.

Seems she got that image of knights correct.

“I want to find out what is going on first. Hope to grow stronger within week and then see what they plan to do. Stop them if needed.”

Cellestra sighed, then smiled slightly. The smile did not seem genuine. It was almost as if it was forced, to put me at ease. Her worry was clear.

“I had expected nothing less of you, Kealyna. I will go with you when you decide to go there.”

I did not want to put Cellestra at risk, but I did not want to dissuade her from doing what she wanted to do, either. Hopefully, I would grow strong enough within a week that I wouldn’t need her help at all. In the meantime, I would make sure to double down on teaching her my spells whenever we had the time.

I prayed to Elysa that it would give her the means to stay safe.